Start of session down for Piazza Affari, weighed down by banks, the Fiat group and the Berlusconi galaxy. The FTSE Mib index is confirmed below 19.000 points and leaves more than one percentage point on the ground. Meanwhile, the gap between the BTP and the Bund has jumped over 260 points.
After last Friday's sell-off and despite Consob's intervention to make short positions more transparent, the decline of the banks continues, with UniCredit and Intesa Sanpaolo down by about one percentage point.
Bad Mediaset after the sentence of the Milan Court of Appeal which sentenced Fininvest to pay Cir 560 million. Mondadori yields about two percentage points.
Cir flies: about +4%. FIAT loses about 2,5%, FIAT INDUSTRIAL is in a volatility auction with a theoretical decrease of more than six percentage points.
CONSOB: FROM TODAY, BEARERS MUST DECLARE THE OVERDRAFT
ASSOSIM: A GOOD COMPROMISE; CARDIA: BETTER STOP
Consob has approved a new regime on short selling. "Starting from this morning, investors who hold significant bearish positions on shares traded on Italian regulated markets are required to communicate this", reads the official note released at the end of the meeting held until late yesterday evening in search of effective measures to buffer the landslide of the securities of listed Italian banks, led by Unicredit. The provision will remain in force until 9 September 2011. The provision, explains the market supervisory authority, «strengthens Consob's supervisory powers in the current market phase, characterized by a high level of volatility in the performance of quotations. In particular, the net short positions relating to the shares of companies listed in Italy must be disclosed to Consob when they exceed certain quantitative thresholds. The first disclosure obligation is triggered upon reaching a net short position equal to or greater than 0,2% of the issuer's capital. Subsequently, the obligation is activated for each change equal to or greater than 0,1% of the capital».
According to Assosim it is "an excellent compromise solution"; better a discipline based on transparency than a ban, in short. Although the Italian association of securities brokers believes that in emergency situations a disclosure obligation is preferable to a ban. Assosim also hopes that ESMA, the European market supervisory authority, will intervene in this regard "in order to extend the obligation to all intermediaries in the European Union and thus avoid the risk of regulatory arbitrage". This afternoon, the former president of Consob Lamberto Cardia also spoke on the subject according to which short selling "in the presence of a serious crisis situation should be totally prohibited for the necessary period or at most allowed during the day" . For the former president, who in the aftermath of the collapse of Lehman Brothers limited short selling within three days, "a reduction of market movements for short periods is preferable rather than witnessing the serious damages that are caused to companies listed, also strategic for the country».
THE FT: "US HEDGE BETS AGAINST BTPs"
"BUT IF YOU ARE EXAGER, THE EU WILL HAVE TO INTERVENE"
American hedge funds are betting on the collapse of Italian government bonds. The confirmation comes from the Financial Times which, citing market sources, supports the hypothesis of a concerted attack on BTPs and CCTs using the technique, successfully tested in the case of Greece: you buy a CDS causing a parallel decline in government bonds compared to the Bund. It is thus sold short, only to be covered the next day on the extremely liquid Btp and Cct market. "There are technical and fundamental reasons that suggest that the spread of Italian bonds could rise further," Gary Jenkins, head of bond market research at Evolution Securities, told the Financial Times. "But the game of speculation against Italian bonds - he adds - runs the risk of becoming dangerous precisely at the moment in which it becomes more profitable: if the Italian situation becomes too bad, Europe will certainly have to do something".
DRAGHI FIRST IN THE FINANCIAL NEWS RANKING
IT HAS NEVER HAPPENED TO A CENTRAL BANKER
In the Financial News ranking of the 100 most powerful men in European finance, the name of Mario Draghi appears at the top of the list. It had never happened before that a "regulator" led the selection among the most powerful bankers of the Old Continent. There are three central bankers in the top ten.
THE GREAT CONSULTING IN BRUSSELS ABOUT THE BEL PAESE?
THE EU DENIES IT, BUT TRICHET IS ALSO CALLED
In the early afternoon of yesterday the Reuters agency had released the news of an emergency meeting of the Council for Monday morning to discuss the debt crisis in the Eurozone and the speculative attacks on Italy. The news was later denied by the spokesman for Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy, Dirk De Backer, according to whom the meeting "is routine, to prepare the Eurogroup, and not an emergency to talk about the attack on Italy on markets". "This is a weekly coordination meeting between President Van Rompuy and the President of the European Commission Josè Manuel Durao Barroso," explained the spokesman.
Since the meeting is "on economic and financial current affairs", Van Rompuy has decided to also convene the president of the ECB Jean-Claude Trichet, the president of the Eurogroup Jean-Claude Juncker, the commissioner for economic and monetary affairs Olli Rehn and the director of the Italian Treasury Vittorio Grilli, in his capacity as president of the European Economic and Financial Committee, De Backer stressed again. Despite the denial, however, according to observers it is not excluded that there is also talk of Italy and its fragility in the face of speculative attacks.
The FT. GREECE'S DEFAULT IS NO LONGER A TABOO
TODAY THE EUROGROUP IS EXAMINING THE GERMAN OPTION
Eurogroup ministers open to the possibility of a partial default of Greece. The first draft of a "German"-style plan will be discussed today in Brussels, reveals the Financial Times which adds that, in the Roman meeting of the IIF among the big bankers, the French solution of a "voluntary" lengthening of the maturities of the debt to be paid by the banks, already hit by the sharp no of S&P's. It therefore takes the path of a partial default combined with other measures to help Athens: a robust buyback of Greek bonds (at least 10 percent) and the lowering of rates on a part of the debt. The weak point of the plan lies in the timing: it is unlikely that an intervention of this kind can take shape before the end of the summer. But a signal in that direction, assures the British newspaper, could ease the pressure on the entire eurozone market, starting with the Spanish BTPs and Bonos.
USA, THE BUDGETS CONTINUE
TODAY OBAMA CHALLENGES THE REPUBLICANS ON TV
Negotiations between Barack Obama and the leaders of Congress on defining the new federal budget deficit went on into the night. An agreement must be found by August 2, otherwise the US administrative machinery will be paralysed. But the parties are far apart, even if the president intends to end the non-stop marathon within the next ten days. Indeed, the White House has announced a TV press conference for this morning at 11 am Washington time. “Do you want a mini deal that doesn't settle the issue? – the president will say – Try it”. “The problem – Tim Geithner, secretary of the Treasury explained on TV – is that the Republicans only want to talk about spending cuts, without counting a single extra income”. Thus the White House responds to the Republican speaker of Congress, John Boehmer, who declared that he no longer intends to waste time negotiating the goal of reducing the deficit by 4 billion dollars over the next 10 years, as requested by the presidency. Better to focus on a more limited program, no more than 2 billion.
WEAK START FOR ASIAN STOCK EXCHANGES.
EURO DOWN US QUARTERLY KICKS OFF TODAY
Weak markets today in Asia. The Greek crisis weighs heavily, the speculative attack on the Italian debt even more. In the background there is strong expectation, after last Friday's disappointing US employment data, for the start of the US quarterly campaign. We begin, as per tradition, with the Alcoa accounts which will arrive on the European markets in the early afternoon. Meanwhile, the Tokyo Stock Exchange reports a drop of 0,7%, Hong Kong of 0,9% despite the weakness of the big banks. The Chinese markets are conditioned by the news on inflation, which has jumped to a new high of 6,4% and by the export trend, which has grown "only" by 17,6% but against an increase in imports of 19,3, 1,4127. The euro fell (14 against the dollar) against 16 currencies out of the XNUMX traded in the oriental lists.
AFTER BLACK FRIDAY THE MILAN STOCK EXCHANGE
JUDGE THE JUDGMENT ON THE MONDADORI AWARD
Spotlights on Cir and on the securities of the Fininvest galaxy after the sentence condemning Silvio Berlusconi's flagship to repay 560 million to Cir. First of all, we need to verify what the reaction of the finance company led by Rodolfo De Benedetti will be, which has already anticipated that it does not want to use the amount it is about to seize before the final sentence of the Cassation. The discourse under the roofs of Fininvest is more articulated. Given that the group has the means to deal with the blow, it will be interesting to verify the impact on the Mediaset stock and on Mediolanum. Ennio Doris has never hidden that he is ready to buy the Fininvest stake in the financial company, should the Berlusconi family decide to sell. Meanwhile, however, the judicial challenge is far from over: the prime minister's lawyers are studying the moves to freeze the refund. Any financial conjecture, therefore, risks being premature.
Meanwhile, Piazza Affari restarts after Black Friday. Indeed, the Milan Stock Exchange closed its doors for the weekend after a dramatic session with the FtseMib index down by 3,4%. The sales were fierce on Italian equities and government bonds, with the yield on the 10-year BTP rising by 5,26 basis points to 245% and the spread with the German Bund widening to a new all-time high (since the establishment of the euro) by 6 basis points. Italy has become the new privileged target of international speculation which has been systematically attacking the euro for a year and a half; the yield of the Bono, the ten-year Spanish bond, rose by 12 basis points, less than the BTP. Instead, the yields of Germany (-6 points), France (-9 points) and Great Britain (-1,425 points) fell. The euro fell against the dollar to 1,436, from 1,1939 yesterday evening, and plunged against the Swiss franc, which rose to 1,2128 from 1,4 (+7,8%). The main banks went down on the stock market: Unicredit -4,5%, Intesa -5,8% Ubi XNUMX%.
JAIN, AN INDIAN AT THE TOP OF DEUTSCHE BANK
HE WILL BE ONE OF ACKERMAN'S TWO SUCCESSORS
The Indian Anshu Jain will be one of the two CEOs of Deutsche Bank from 2012, when Joseph Ackerman will step down at the helm of the most powerful bank in the European Union, a post that Azel Weber seemed destined for before the former Bundesbank president chose Ubs guide. The decision was taken over the weekend by the bank's nomination committee which had no hesitation in choosing Jain, the "wizard" of the investment bank on whom most of the institution's profits depend. But Jain, who also speaks little more than elementary German, certainly cannot be the only leader of Germany's most representative bank. Next to him, therefore, we need a German. Probably Juergen Fitschen who, however, did not overcome the perplexities of Werner Wenning, former CEO of Bayer, who asked for additional reflection.
Consob press release
